4
It was often said that one of the most powerful bonds in the universe was that of a mother's love for her children. Angelique realized that now. She would have given her life for either her son or daughter, and she had definitely tried… and failed. Whoever this woman calling herself Cheryl Harridge was, she was much more powerful than even her. She had felt her power, and had been humbled by it, even drained by it. The experience had shattered her confidence as a former witch who had once nearly destroyed the Collins family she had once sworn to destroy, but now she had an oath to protect it, but how could she reach those goals when the bonds of motherhood to her children had been stripped from her soul?
"I call upon the watchtowers of Earth…" She sat huddled before the blazing fire in the Old House fireplace trying to call upon the pagan gods of old. She did not dare call upon her former dark masters, not even in a matter that tore into her soul. Tears steaming down her face, her heart breaking within her breast and even her hands shaking from her ordeal, she wanted her son back! Was he still alive? Where was he? She wanted him back!
"Grant me sight beyond sight…" Her wavering voice reached beyond infinity and the other levels of existence. "Grant me the power over my enemies and the protection of mother earth. I call upon the watchtowers…" She repeated her spell over and over. Barnabas had tried to tug her away from her ritual, but she had resisted him for the sake of her son. He could only watch with the love and concern of the devoted husband he had become for the wife he had grown to love and trust, and yet, worry that she was once more sliding back into the former arts she had promised to relinquish so many years before as his wife and the mother of his children. A noise distracted the Collins patriarch from the welfare and ensuing grief for his wife, and the former vampire turned aloft and looked toward the foyer of the house to glance upon Quentin Collins standing at the bottom landing of the staircase. Garbed in his usual sweater and khakis, his look was confused and concerned as he looked to Angelique trying to summon a spell then back to Barnabas.
"You didn't give me any details over the phone." Quentin looked round. "What happened exactly?"
"Some…" Barnabas looked to Angelique with worried concern. "Woman arrived here claiming that William was her son…."
"What?!"
"I call upon the watchtowers of Earth…" Behind them, Angelique cried and wept as she rocked back and forth on her legs on the floor trying to summon her spell.
"She was powerful, Quentin." Barnabas slowly began reaching to comfort his wife in her spell, but at the last minute held back. "More powerful than anyone we've even faced." He turned away with a Shakespearean luster as if he were reciting to an unseen audience. "For a brief few seconds, I was that creature I once was… and Angelique was powerless to help me or stop her from claiming William."
"We must call the authorities then…."
"Grant me the power over my enemies and the protection of mother earth. I call upon…." On the floor, Angelique crossed herself with a protection spell and continued invocating through her tears and broken heart.
"I don't think we can do that this time." Barnabas turned to Quentin. "Not without revealing the people we once were or… this woman's nature…" He paused with the concerned grief of a father missing a son. "I know not what we are facing. If only Stokes were still with us…"
"Well, surely Angelique knows of spells that…." He heard a whistling through the house. The sunlight outside dimmed and the clouds started rolling in from over the ocean. Angelique gasped as she felt a touch on her shoulder. The wind outside the Old House was accelerating and the trees bent toward the presence of the restored ancestral manor. A deep breath of air gasped over the fireplace and nearly snuffed the burning blaze. Barnabas feared whatever force his wife had conjured and noticed the front doors of the flying open from the strong gale outside. As Angelique gasped before the power she had tapped, her husband and his cousin pushed against the air whistling and blowing throw the house and effortlessly sealed the house once more. They were being visited once more.
"Of my children far and abroad…" A voice echoed with the merit of a warrior. "I will always return pon Midgard when my children call upon me." A male presence now stood over Angelique as Barnabas and Quentin reacted. At first, they were not upon guests arriving without warning, but Angelique had leapt to her feet and embraced him dearly. Barnabas reacted with stunned silence; Quentin stood as a mute witness to these events unfolding.
"I need your help once again…" The former witch clung to her former benefactor for support and stepped back trying to dry her tears. "As you confessed to be my ancestor, you must protect my son who is descended from you as I was. He has been taken from me and I am powerless before his abductor."
"I am sworn to protect my children and their children from immortal threats…." The figure was over six feet tall with long thick blonde locks and a Viking beard; garbed in the arraignment of a humble man... blue jeans, red t-shirt and brown leather jacket over a massive muscle-toned frame, his steely blue eyes peered upon Angelique with noble and honorable intent. "But by Gimle's words, I am forbidden to invest in mortal affairs. You must confront the sorceress yourself."
"You have to return my son to me!" Angelique ordered him.
"Do not tempt my patience, daughter of my children." The figure warned her with the diction of a parent. "My patience is as infinite as my mother, but even a former god's wrath can be tested!"
"Angelique…" Barnabas broke his stunned silence. "Do you know this… presence?" Angelique seemingly realized her husband's existence. Quentin stood by mute to these events.
"His name is Sigurd Jordson…" Angelique wafted defiantly and partially through the room. "He was worshipped as the god Thor by the Vikings over a thousand years ago. He rescued me when I was on the Titanic and told me I was descended from his children."
"Ah, yes, I forgot she was on the Titanic…." Quentin noticed the sherry and poured himself a glass. He had briefly visited Collinwood in the days of Prohibition when Angelique told him all about it.
"If I had not turned Angelique from her dark masters…" Thor turned comparing his frame to the Collinwood patriarch. "You might still be sleeping in the pinewood box, descendant of Priam." The former god paced a bit and admired a piece of bric-a-brac.
"Just who was that woman?" Angelique fretted and tried to determine what she was up against. "Why does she want my son? Why does she think he is her son?" Her hand reached to her heart. Thor gasped a moment pulling his hand over his beard, groaned under his breath and looked into the flames ebbing in the fireplace. He glanced to Barnabas then over to Quentin before turning to lean on the mantelpiece under the portrait.
"Her true existence was as Guinevere Alexandra De Constantine Von Altebar…" His mind's eye turned to the past. "A powerful sorceress who acquired her skills from her Gaulic mentors, she claimed to be the living reincarnation of the Lady Guinevere… without merit of course…" He rolled his eyes. "In the Twelfth Century of your calendar, the Holy Roman Church once relied on her to protect them from evil, but their later masters turned against her and accused her of witchcraft… of being in liege with dark entities much like you once did, daughter of my children. They burned her alive pon the grounds of her Bavarian home, and scattered her children upon the world to never know their heritage. She'd have remained trapped between the levels of existence had the Nazis not restored her former home and released her essence. She's been restoring her power and looking for her children ever since." Thor turned toward Angelique. "Your son shares the soul of her first born; with her children restored she will have her revenge on the descendants of those who cast flame upon her."
"Can you face her on my behalf?" Angelique's voice echoed within a whisper.
"I would stand ground against any immortal to raise hand against you, Angelique…" Thor brushed her tears away with his thumb and fingers gracefully to her tender white features. "But Von Altebar is still a mortal if not powerful woman. Your Christian lord forbids me from laying harm against another mortal." He looked upon her as the father she had never known. "You must face her… yourself with the gifts my mother Jord hath given you."
"But Angelique hasn't used her witchcraft in years." Barnabas stepped toward the former thunder-god. "She's… out of practice. I won't allow her to put herself in danger."
"A parent's greatest gift to their child is the laying down of their life." Thor looked to him then back to Angelique. "I told her years ago that she would be sorely tested for her past sins, just as the once mortal son of Zeus was tested for his avarice…."
With that, Angelique gasped deeply and lightly fell into the arms of her husband. Her head on his shoulder, she grieved deeply and started bemoaning the absence of her son. Barnabas tried to console her with every breadth of his will, but her heart was breaking too far for him to comprehend.
"So…" Quentin sipped his sherry. "What's Hercules doing these days anyway?" The former thunder god made an annoyed look and peered back with derision to the former scoundrel.